A Slight Misunderstanding
by animegus farmus
Summary: Hatter's never had a problem with being too concise before...


_Disclaimer: I need practice saying no. Do I own Tin Man or Alice? No._

_Author's Note: Writing fanfic is turning me into a big old hypocrite. Just over a year ago when I was but a fanfic reader I had a few pet peeves: 1) I didn't like OCs; 2) I really didn't like canon characters paired with OCs; and 3) I don't do crossovers. Those of you who have read a few of my stories know that I have an abundance of 1, 2 hasn't happened yet but is kind of inevitable at this point and, well, here comes number 3. I think I'm going to blame KLCtheBookWorm for the major train wreck of thought that produced this. There I was trying to kick 'Tic Tok' back into gear while I had Halice fanvids playing in the background for musical accompaniment, and then a vague half thought regarding certain similarities niggled its way through my brain. This kind of grew from there. I will hold to it, however, that there must have been some sort of unconscious input from the conversation KLC and I had a few days ago regarding the meeting of these two characters. Perhaps seeing it once will help your muse along in this regard, who knows, now it can get out of my head, please, because I don't do crossovers!_

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...

Hatter has never considered himself much of a runner, but he certainly seems to be running around a lot these days, running from danger, running after Alice, running into brick walls...

_Ow,_ the former tea shop owner thinks as he hits the ground hard – probably because he opted to secure the hat on his head rather than seeking to break his fall.

The brick wall lets out a low grunt as it stumbles back half a step and looks to see what hit it.

...okay, so maybe the stranger currently looming over him isn't really a brick wall, but he'd certainly felt like one. "Watch where you're going, yeah?" the conman huffs in annoyance, glaring up at the big lug.

"You ran into me," the man scowls back, but he extends a hand to help the Wonderlander up, which is something you don't see often on this side of the Looking Glass.

"In a hurry," Hatter explains, accepting the hand, "Lookin' fer someone. Hav'n't happen'd to see a girl come by this way? Petite brunette wif..._hurk_," he chokes off, because just like that he's been slammed into a _real_ brick wall, there's arm pressed heavily against his throat, and a gun being driven rather painfully into the underside of his chin.

"Big blue eyes, penchant for getting into trouble," the stranger adds to the description in a slow, dangerous drawl, his ice blue eyes conveying deadly intent.

Hatter's been afraid before, been afraid plenty of times, usually doesn't mind admitting it, either. He's afraid right now as a matter of fact, but that doesn't stop his right hand from closing firmly into his sledgehammer of a fist. The furious fellow doesn't look much like a Suit, but someone from the resistance might have gotten ideas, and while his body armour isn't going to do anything to protect his head, Hatter isn't letting anyone go after Alice without at least _trying_ to do something about it.

"Always looking for something," the conman continues, stalling for an opening, "boyfriend, father..."

"...emerald, sister," his captor finishes for him, though Hatter noticed how the man's mouth had twitched unhappily at the word 'boyfriend'...wait, what was that again?

"Eh? Don't you mean the Stone o' Wonderland?" he corrects. She's never mentioned a sister, but she seems to lose people all over the place so you never know...except now the big guy's looking as perplexed as he is. "Wait," Hatter exclaims, "we even talkin' 'bout the same girl 'ere? Blue dress, red tights, long straight hair? Can toss you over her shoulder and generally trounce you if you annoy her?"

The stranger blinks in surprise. "Weird pants, leather jacket, curly hair, can make dolls spin in the air and bring dead orchards to life," he lists back – rather impressive that last part – the pressure of his arm easing up on Hatter's throat a bit. The gun doesn't move, though, the Wonderlander considers pointing this out, only he seems to have lost the bigger man's attention, his head turning away as if by some instinct to locate...

"Cain!" a new voice cries out, "You won't _believe_ where we are, and guess who _this_ is," the girl – petite brunette, big blue eyes, weird pants, leather jacket, curly hair – trills as she hauls another girl – petite brunette, big blue eyes, blue dress, red tights, _straight_ hair – along with her.

_Alice_, Hatter thinks in relief.

"_DG_," the stranger grits out in rather familiar exasperation.

"Oyster?" the Wonderlander asks sympathetically.

"Princess," the other man corrects with a grimace.

"Oh," Hatter mutters back, never having realized before that he'd gotten off easy, though this probably isn't the time to bring up his rather determined dislike of royalty – the gun _still_ hasn't moved from its position beneath his chin after all. He figures he can forgive the poor fellow, however; he does after all have a very nice hat.


End file.
